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From afar, Death Cab for Cutie don't seem to have evolved very much over seven albums: The Seattle band still explore love's tender, bruiseable side with Ben Gibbard's sometimes delicate, sometimes forceful vocals set to sometimes delicate, sometimes forceful indie rock.

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This Missouri band's music is so plainly likable that they should consider running for public office -- even the off-putting name wouldn't deter any voters who appreciate the shy prettiness of the Shins and the sweeter, least brash moments of the New Pornographers.

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An able MC who occasionally seems too indebted to indie hip-hop convention -- multiple clever allusions per verse; using 20 words when five will do; and the need to crowd in discordant, annoying sounds -- Canadian blogger/Pitchfork writer Rollie Pemberton might have a killer crossover album in him someday.

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R.E.M.'s last album, Around the Sun, stays on my shelf only for the sake of catalog completeness; it's been freed once or twice since 2004 to be dusted off and quickly reassessed: Did a band this important really release something so incomprehensibly dull and unrelentingly bored with itself?